The Permanent International Committee of Linguists (Comite Inter-national Permanent des Linguistes) is an international organization founded to assist in the development of linguistic science

The Permanent International Committee of Linguists (Comite International Permanent des Linguistes) is an international organization founded to assist in the development of linguistic science. It tries to further linguistic research and to co-ordinate activities undertaken for the advancement of linguistics. It considers it as its special task to promote mutual contact between linguists and to make the results of linguistic research known internationally.

CIPL, the acronym by which the organization is normally called, consists of a General Assembly and an Executive Committee. The General Assembly is composed of all participating countries. At present the General Assembly consists of 38 representatives from the following contribution paying countries (in alphabetical order): Albania, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Societas Linguistica Europaea, Societé International de dialectologie et géolinquistique.

The Executive Committee of CIPL conducts and co-ordinates the activities of CIPL. Its Secretary-General, in consultation with the President and other members of the Executive Committee, directs the current activities of CIPL and maintains contact with the international organizations with which CIPL co-operates.

Each country which is a member of CIPL remits an annual contribution to CIPL (minimum $ 150 per year). Expenses for the activities of CIPL are covered by its normal budgetary income, by an annual subvention from Unesco, by special contributions (at present from Great Britain, Japan, Sweden and the U.S.A.) and by a large grant from the Dutch government.

For an account of the activities of CIPL before 1950 the reader is referred to the brochure written by the previous Secretary-General, Professor Christine Mohrmann (l'Organisation et l'activité du Comité International Permanent des Linguistes, Utrecht: Spectrum 1949).

At present CIPL is conducting the following activities:

(1) The organization of international congresses, in close collaboration with national committees or institutions of linguistic research. So far 15 congresses have been held: The Hague 1928, Geneva 1931, Rome 1933, Copenhagen 1936, (Brussels 1939 was cancelled because of World War II), Paris 1948, London 1952, Oslo 1957, Cambridge, Mass. 1962, Bucharest 1967, Bologna 1972, Vienna 1977, Tokyo 1982, Berlin 1987, Quebec 1992, Paris 1997, Prague 2003.

Proceedings of all congresses are published.

(2) The preparation and publication of a linguistic bibliography which aims at giving a complete and reliable survey of all linguistic publications, irrespective of the country of their appearance or the language in which they are written.

The bibliographies are being prepared in The Netherlands by two bibliographers. The Dutch bibliographers receive valuable assistance from a number of correspondents from abroad as well as from Dutch scholars. The bibliographers work under the supervision of the Secretary-General of CIPL who bears the final responsibility for their work.

(3) The publication of special volumes at irregular intervals. So far 15 books have been published. Their titles are listed here.

(4) The sponsoring of special linguistic projects such as projects in the field of Endangered Languages. So far CIPL is affiliated with the International Society for Dialectology and Geolinguistics and with Societas Linguistica Europaea.

CIPL was founded in April 1928 during the first international congress which took place in The Hague. The initiative for this first post-war meeting came from two Dutch linguists: Professor C. C. Uhlenbeck of Leiden University and Professor J. Schrijnen of the University of Nijmegen. The congress constitutes an important landmark in the study of linguistics. As its secretary, Prof. Schrijnen, rightly observed in his concluding report, it was the first time that linguistics had presented itself to the world as an autonomous science. During the congress a proposal from the French linguist Antoine Meillet was accepted to hold international congresses every three years. In order to ensure the proper organization of future congresses, CIPL was created, originally consisting of a Secretary-General (Schrijnen) and ten members, all very distinguished scholars (Bally, Boas, Brockelmann, Jespersen, Daniel Jones, Karlgren, Kretschmer, Meillet, Rozwadowski and Trom-betti).

Because of the place of its origin, CIPL has always had close ties with The Netherlands and with Dutch linguistics. Those who held the office of Secretary-General have all been Dutch linguists with the exception of the Norwegian scholar Professor A. Sommerfelt, who served in this capacity from 1945 till 1964.

An important and fruitful change in the position of CIPL took place in 1948 when at the 8th session of the Executive Committee of Unesco CIPL was accorded Consultative Status. Also in other respects Unesco rendered valuable assistance to CIPL by providing grants for covering the travelling costs of young scholars from far-off countries or from countries that had suffered from the war, who wanted to take part in the linguistic congresses. Unesco also gave a grant for the publication of the proceedings of the congress held in 1948 in Paris. Both types of grant have continued to be put at the disposal of CIPL.

In 1947 CIPL itself assisted in the preparation and the subsequent founding of the Conseil International de la Philosophie et des Sciences Humaines of Unesco (CIPSH). In 1949 the first meeting of this newly established council took place in Brussels, and since that year CIPL has functioned within this larger international framework. In 1964 the statutes of CIPL were changed so as to conform with the general guidelines of CIPSH for organizations operating under its aegis. In 1982 and 1987 the statutes underwent some further changes in order to make it possible for international linguistic organizations to join CIPL.

The linguistic congresses which from 1957 onward have been held every five years, have gradually expanded their scope and have developed into truly international gatherings. The early congresses were largely attended by scholars from a limited number of mostly European countries and the total number of the participants was rarely more than two or three hundred. At present, however, the linguistic congresses are attended by more than one thousand linguists, coming from all continents. The number of papers presented has grown accordingly and also has the size of the proceedings.

The topics discussed at the congresses reflect the rapid growth of linguistics as a science and its manifold interfaces with psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy and many other sciences. The expansion and specialization of linguistics are impressive. At present no scholar can claim to be conversant with the whole of the linguistic literature. Even more limited fields, such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and semantics are developing at a rate which makes them increasingly difficult for the individual scholar to follow without reliable bibliographical assistance.

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As to the future, CIPL is confident that it will be able to fulfil its two main obligations: the organization of international congresses and the annual publication of the bibliography. The modest funds at its disposal put narrow limits on the range of the activities of our organization. As it is of the utmost importance that the linguistic bibliography be as up-to-date as possible, a serious attempt is being made to shorten the interval between the year covered and the year of publication of the annual bibliography.

It goes without saying that CIPL remains open for all countries in which national linguistic institutions or research centers have come into being. As its statutes already indicate, CIPL is meant to be a truly international organization. Therefore our policy can only be to encourage national and international scientific organizations to become members and to participate in our activities.